Rage
by Blood-InTheFields
Summary: Root doesn't know how to let go of the rage. So she lets it consume her. Multi POVs.


**Who else got their heart broken AGAIN when Root kept so hard to keep her tears from falling in 4x12? I know I did.**

* * *

Root is always calm in appearance.

For a stranger, Root would seem to be a normal person, perhaps just a bit weird.

John and Harold know better.

Her eyes don't have the same spark. Her eyes are void of any expression.

Her posture is stiff, her shoulders tense.

She never smiles anymore.

Not since that fateful day when they lost Shaw.

* * *

Reese isn't sure how long Root will go on. He watches in silence as she works on a new number. She is focused, or so it seems to the untrained eyes. John knows how to read someone. And he can tell that Root's mind is miles away. He thinks her mind never left the basement of the stock exchange.

Root is ruthless; there is no other way to describe it. More often than not, she leaves bodies in her wake. Reese wants to stop it, to stop her, but what can he do? Lock her in a cage again, until she deals with her grief?

When they work numbers together, Reese manages to keep her from killing. But when he catches glimpses of her in the subway station, whenever she comes back from working on her own cases, John always sees blood on her clothes. Sometimes, on her hands. A few times, on her face, too. Generally, he hears from Fusco that a body's been found somewhere, sometime later. And he just knows.

Reese wonders if Finch knows, too.

If he does, he never says a word about it.

One time, John catches Root looking at her damaged ear in the mirror. Her expression is dark, and when her eyes notice him in the background, she simply stares at him until he turns away and leaves.

He wonders if Root is still talking to the Machine. If perhaps she doesn't want to listen to it anymore. If perhaps she doesn't care to anymore.

And if she is not, is this a good or a bad thing?

* * *

Harold is afraid they've lost Root the moment they lost Miss Shaw.

He sees the changes in Miss Groves' behavior. He can feel the pain and anger radiating off of her. He wants to talk to her, but he knows it would be futile.

Root is on a war path, ever since the elevator doors closed.

The fact that they haven't found Sameen—alive or dead—clearly does not help.

Finch is certain that the hacker is still searching for her, moving heaven and earth to find leads that never amount to anything.

Root never jokes anymore. Her tone is business-like, courteous but never really warm.

He wonders if she blames him for what happened.

Or even worse, if she blames the Machine.

A faithful Root is dangerous.

A Godless Root is lethal.

Finch remembers all too well, unfortunately. He suspects what the loss of a loved one can do to someone like Root.

He can never quite bring himself to look her in the eye. The darkness he sees there makes his skin crawl. Harold knows Miss Groves would not hurt him, not now, not anymore.

But there's no telling what she can do to others, especially if they stand in her way.

Judging on the pile of bloody clothes in the small bathroom, he can imagine.

* * *

Root sees her everywhere.

Every street corner, every car, every alley.

But she's never really there.

It's just her imagination.

And it breaks her each time a little bit more.

She asks the Machine to shut up soon after Shaw's demise. In fact, she does so as soon as _she_ tries to apologize. Apologize for not seeing it coming, for not coming up with a solution, with a valid option.

Root doesn't care about apologies. She cares that Shaw is no longer here. She cares to know whether there's a chance that she's out there, somewhere, still alive.

The Machine respects her wish, although _she_ insists on helping Root in her quest to find Shaw. Root is not stupid enough to refuse that help.

She tracks down every Samaritan agent during her free time. After a while, they become harder and harder to find.

There's only one she's really interested in.

She can't wait to put a bullet between her eyes.

In the meantime, she helps John and Harold with the numbers that keep on coming. She has a lot of rage that needs to be let out or Root thinks she will implode. The perpetrators rarely make it out alive if Root doesn't think they deserve to live.

More often than not, they don't.

She doesn't care what Harold and Reese think of her. They're worried; she can tell. But it doesn't make her pause.

Root just wants Shaw. And she will not stop until she gets her hands on her.

She will keep looking everywhere, following every lead. She has no idea how long it will take or if she'll be killed before she succeeds.

It really doesn't matter.

She'll die trying.

* * *

**You know the drill: leave a review if you want to! Thanks for reading!**

**OTH-FOQ**


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